


The Trials and Tribulations of Pace and Armitage

by anon33125



Category: Richlee-Fandom, The Hobbit RPF
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Eventual Romance, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-10-08 16:29:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10391022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anon33125/pseuds/anon33125
Summary: I was looking for more slow build RichLee that I haven't read yet and couldn't find one, so I decided to write a new one. Just a fluffy story where Richard and Lee do not start as fast friends or love at first sight, but find their way around each other anyway. Will probably be rated explicit eventually :)





	1. The American

            The best way to unwind on a Friday night in New Zealand was most definitely to head down to one of Wellington’s little known corner pubs: The Firecracker. With several weeks of filming underway, the cast and crew of The Hobbit had quickly made the Firecracker their usual meeting place for a couple drinks and some light-hearted chatter before going their separate ways for the weekend. It was on one of these highly coveted Friday nights that found Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman chatting amiably over a couple glasses of wine, Richard sitting at the outside of a booth and Martin leaning against the back edge.

            “How are you holding up?” Richard asked, turning himself more fully away from the table where Aidan Turner, Dean O’Gorman, and Jed Brophy were arguing about the physical requirements to be a stunt double. Again.

            “Oh, I’m alright, bit exhausted, but I don’t have to explain that to you,” Martin responded with a wink. Richard chuckled in response, the dwarves and Martin had been running for the infamous Scene 88 for the last three days in a row. And the dwarves always carried at least twice as much baggage as Martin.

            “Did you notice the Mirkwood elves showing up this week?” Martin asked, nodding a brief glance to one of the tables on the opposite side of the pub where Orlando Bloom and Sir Ian McKellen were happily catching up, along with a couple other actors Richard didn’t recognize.

            “I did notice that the costume department was more busy than usual,” Richard replied. “Haven’t gotten around to meeting any of them yet.”

            “I’ve heard rumor that there’s an American in the bunch,” Martin said, raising his eyebrows significantly. “Plays Thranduil.”

            “Hmm,” Richard pressed his lips together, gaze roaming back to the group of newcomers. “He’d better be ready to take the piss as well as he can dish it, then.”

            It was Martin’s turn to laugh as he took a sip of his wine. “Fancy going over to say hey?”

            Richard shrugged and downed the remaining drops of his own wine, then stood, smacking Aidan briefly on the head to drag the three out of their argument. “Martin and I are going to greet the elven royalty and I’m headed to my flat after. You and Dean going to run with me tomorrow?”

            “Ow! You coulda just interrupted us like a normal person,” Aidan grumbled, turning to face Richard with a playful scowl on his face. “Deano and I will run though, Uncle, see ya on the flip side.”

            “Want us to come meet the enemy with you?” Dean asked, glancing around Jed to the other side of the pub. “Might need some backup, hobbits are only little elf-lovers, after all.”

            “Oh hush, you fucking little twerp,” Martin responded fairly, taking his turn to throw a balled up napkin at Dean’s head while Aidan and Jed laughed.

            “Well, we’re here for back up if you need it,” Jed offered quickly before heading back to the anecdote he was relating about bungee jumping off a bridge for some Jackson movie or other.

            “More fucking running?” Martin asked in disbelief as the pair walked away from the table.

            “Dean knows some good loops, so we try to go most Saturdays. We’ll likely do a short one tomorrow, but it will keep us from getting too stiff from Pete’s workout this week,” Richard responded easily, carefully avoiding the real reason he liked having company when running in NZ (he may have gotten lost once or twice…).

            “Ah, Richard! Martin!” Ian saw them approaching and ushered them over happily. “Come meet our happy troop!”

            “Hey guys,” Orlando stood immediately from their booth and offering his hand and an easy grin.. “I’m Orlando, otherwise known as Legolas.”  

            “Pleasure,” Richard replied, taking the proffered hand. “Richard Armitage, King Under the Mountain.”

            “Martin Freeman,” Martin said, grinning slightly wolfishly as he also shook Orlando’s hand. “The hobbit.”

            “Excellent!”Orlando responded happily, then he took the time to point out each of the others at the table in turn. “My daddy, Lee Pace. Ms. Evangeline Lilly, Tauriel, head of the Mirkwood guard. And, last but not least, Luke Evans, who is actually the human, Bard, but we just let him hang with us elves out of pity.”

            “Oi!” Luke objected to Orlando, but still offered a huge grin to Richard and Martin. “I’m looking forward to working with you guys.”

            Luke and Orlando quickly dissolved into bickering while Martin happened to catch a glance of Evangeline’s young son on her phone screensaver. Richard suppressed a sigh at how easily distracted Martin was by children, then turned to see who wasn’t currently talking to anyone and found Lee Pace staring at him.

            “So, you’re the American,” he stated, slowly extending his hand.

            “Guess so,” Lee responded, taking Richard’s hand for a quick, rough shake. “You’re the one who stole my diamonds?”

            “One cannot steal what was once freely given,” Richard replied stoically and managing to sound surprisingly grim, pulling his hand back.

            “What about consensual sex? If consent is only given once, does that not make every other time a rape?” Lee offered immediately, not entirely playful nor serious.

            “That is completely irrelevant in this situation,” Richard responded, slightly stunned by the abrupt turn in conversation.

            “Of course it isn’t. If I consented to have sex with you only once, but you penetrated me a second time, that would be rape. What is given once is not explicitly yours for all time,” Lee said smoothly, a challenging smirk on his face.

            “You consider your sexual partners as objects then? If so, I think we have much bigger problems with your moral conscious to discuss,” Richard recovered quickly. Lee faltered only slightly in his response, but it gave Richard enough time to say a quick ‘goodnight, lovely to meet you all, looking forward to working with you on set,’ to the rest of the actors and then walk up to the bar to pay his bill.    

            Grinning to himself, Richard made his way to the exit, something about having the last word in that odd conversation with the American had left him feeling rather confident with how their professional relationship could work.   

            As he left, however, he did feel an arm brush against his body and hear a voice float in his ear with a warning. “This is far from over, Armitage.”    


	2. Operation Invade Privacy Bubble

            It had barely been two weeks since Lee had joined The Hobbit crew filming in New Zealand and yet, he already felt pretty comfortable with how things were progressing. He liked the people he was working with and the script was just fantastic. There was really only one major issue that bugged him though. Richard Armitage. Everything about Richard was carefully put together, carefully controlled, and even every word out of his mouth was carefully managed. He was exactly the sort of person that Lee and his Julliard friends would have tried to get a rise out of. He was just generally someone who looked like he had his life together and, let’s face it, anybody would be jealous of that. So when Lee was faced with the choice of drinking his coffee with Orlando, Evie, and their babies or Richard sitting low in one of the comfy couches looking over script changes, he made an almost immediate beeline for the couch.

            Lee had long been considering the best ways to put Richard off his game and, after some careful observations, discovered that Richard was protective of his personal space (as well as his privacy). Lee decided the best way to irritate him might just be to push that personal space boundary, break into his little bubble. Lee quickly rationalized his decision by believing that it would ultimately be for the good of the film, the two kings were supposed to antagonize each other, any way he could push Richard’s buttons in real life could only help fuel his performance when they actually got to filming together.

            Lee happily plopped himself down on the couch mere centimeters from Richard’s shoulder, despite the amount of couch left open at the older man’s side.

            “Good morning, Lee,” Richard said, using a low monotone, not bothering to look up from the bit of script he was reading.

            “Morning, Dickie,” Lee responded, tooth-achingly sweet cheer in his voice. He grinned as he felt Richard’s minuscule twitch at the use of such a crude nickname. “Whatcha doin?”

            “Got some script changes this morning,” Richard replied, using his normal, bored speaking voice. He turned the page of the script, tucked his pen behind his ear, and picked up his tea on the side table to take a sip while continuing to read.

            Lee took a sip from his coffee to think about what his next move should be, clearly he would have to keep referring to Richard as ‘Dickie,’ but that was the only outward reaction he’d managed to get. Richard put his tea back down and pulled his pen back into his hand to underline a phrase, making a quick note of the pronunciation of some Khuzdul words on the page.   

            “You filming today?” Lee asked, sliding himself even closer to Richard on the couch.

            “Nope, rehearsals and the gym,” Richard replied shortly, still not taking his attention off of the script in front of him. Lee barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes and instead upped the saccharine quality of his voice.

            “The gym does wonderful things for you, Dickie,” Lee murmured, as silkily as he could, letting his fingers trail slowly, tickling up Richard’s arm.

            That did it. Richard squirmed, grabbed his tea and got off the couch.

            “Don’t call me that,” he groused roughly before walking towards where Graham McTavish and Adam Brown were talking over their own steaming cups.

            Lee chuckled, relaxing back into the couch. That hadn’t been too hard.

            Little did he know that the war had only just begun.


	3. The Mud Massacre

            Richard knew he had his faults; he took things too personally, he hated feeling like someone else had the upper hand on him, and he never ever gave up, even when it was probably wisest to do so. He pondered these three faults in particular as he put the finishing touches on Lee’s trailer. Tray of mud just over the threshold inside the door: check. Chewed gum in the key hole: check. Bucket of water wired to fall once weight was placed on the second step to the door: check. Stereo system rigged to turn on full blast where the water bucket would land on the remote: check. So what if Lee had invaded his bubble just a little too much? Or called him that god-awful name, multiple times now? Well, this would make them even. Or maybe Richard would be a little ahead, but really, who was counting?

            “Hey Rich!” Graham’s voice pulled Richard out of his thoughts and he quickly tucked away the extra wire and paperclips into his pockets as he straightened, raising a hand in greeting. “What are you doing over here?”

            “I dropped my phone, it skittered a bit,” Richard responded easily, pulling his phone out of a pocket. At least it was only a slight stretch of the truth; he did drop his phone all the time, so its case was plenty beat up to look the part. “Are you heading over for lunch?”

            “Nah, grabbed a bite at my trailer, off to the gym to get some battle axe practice in,” he said as the two of them started making their way to one of the larger buildings on the Wellington Studio Lot. “What are you up to this afternoon?”

            “Voice-overs with Fran and Phil,” Richard said while Graham nodded in understanding. Having to re-read script over particularly loud, already filmed action sequences was fairly common; it helped the sound guys enhance what was already there.

            “Who is actually filming today? Must be the elves or Luke,” Graham wondered aloud.

            “The Mirkwood elves,” Richard offered, smirking slightly. Graham didn’t miss the self-satisfied expression on his friend’s face.

            “Look mate, whatever you were actually up to over near those trailers, don’t step in it too deep. Pace can charm anyone to do anything he damn well pleases, let’s not get off on the wrong foot with him.”

            Richard waved Graham’s warning off with ease. “This is between me and the elf king, Graham, nothing to worry about.”

            “Anything you get into, you know Aidan and Dean will end up in it up to their noses as well. That means Adam and Jed will want to join, and then we’ll all be dragged in. And I’m going to have to clean you all up while Martin distracts Pete and Andy,” Graham sighed, acting quite put out.

            “You were the one who brought out the silly string, don’t even try to pin that incident on me,” Richard chuckled, shaking his head. “Really, this is nothing.”

 

            Graham actually believed Richard until several hours later, after a good double axe workout, he was headed to grab a few things from his trailer and then back to his flat for a nice early night. And then he heard a stereo system burst into life, followed by a loud Texan accent screaming profanities to blister the air blue. Graham made a very quick decision to bypass the trailer park for the night, he could get the rest of his things in the morning.


	4. Disappointing Hot Sauce

It turned out that as much as Graham was right, Richard had been too. The pranks stayed strictly between Armitage and Pace; the enmity however, spread like wildfire to the Durin nephews, who took every opportunity to send slurs over to the elves. Thankfully, Orlando and Evie both took it in stride and sent their own barbs right back. It was a good natured battle for most of those involved.

            Lee was carefully watching his step as he made his way from costumes back to the trailer park one evening. Ever since the mud massacre at his trailer a couple days ago, he knew a bit of caution wouldn’t be out of place when dealing with Armitage. Though it was early in the game, it was possible that Richard thought it was over and he was in the clear. Well, Lee would just have to fix that, and the best person to turn to in a war was a master of subversion.

            “Hey Lee, how’s it going over there?” His sister’s voice answered on the second ring, full of curiosity.

            “Hey Sally, things are well. I was actually calling to see what trouble your kids have gotten into recently,” Lee responded, trying to sound casual.

            “Why?” Sally asked flatly, she knew Lee well; him asking about the children’s pranks clearly spelled trouble for someone.

            “Just a bit of fun with the guys on set here,” Lee said, trying to add a shrug to his voice, as if it didn’t really matter.

            “Lee.”

            “…” 

            “Okay, fine,” Lee relented after two minutes of silence on the line from Sally. “The guy who plays Thorin, he got into my trailer, managed to make me get mud absolutely everywhere and now it kinda still smells musty.”

            “What did you do to him?” Sally asked, half in amusement and half in condescension.

            “Well… I may have invaded his personal space a bit, but nowhere near enough to incite what he did!” Lee replied indignantly. “Will you help me come up with something or not?”

            “Lee, you know Brits like their space, why did you start something?”

            “He’s witty and damn attractive,” Lee sighed in frustration. “Thorin and Thranduil are supposed to hate each other. Plus antagonizing perfect people is fun.”

            “Fair enough,” Sally chuckled at the other end of the phone line. “Have you thought of anything food related? Like putting hot pepper flakes in his salad? Or replacing vanilla pudding with mayonnaise?”

            “Nah, we all eat the same food in a huge cafeteria, I don’t want to be messing with everyone else.”

            “Hmmm, well, Katie got caught taping a ‘loser’ sign to the back of a boy who asked her out and Jesse stole all the toilet paper from the faculty restrooms. Does that help?”

            “Excellent, yeah I’m coming up with some ideas. Thanks, Sal,” Lee said, adding a little skip to his walk. The hot pepper flake idea was actually pretty good, he could do that while he worked up something a little more elaborate.

            “Ok, well good luck, and don’t get into too much trouble,” Sally replied.

            “Me? Never!”

            Sally laughed at the other end before hanging up. Lee rifled through his cabinets in search of hot sauce.

 

            The next day at lunch, they were serving a nice, hearty beef stew. Lee made his way over to his normal table with Evie, Orlando, and Luke, but first he made a pit stop under the pretense of talking to Martin (who just happened to be sitting next to one Mr. Armitage).

            “Hey Martin, did you manage to get that Mirkwood scene figured out with Pete?” Lee asked, leaning slightly over Richard’s shoulder to talk to him.

            “Yeah, he said we can have a rehearsal space tomorrow for an hour or so,” Martin responded paying more attention to not spilling his stew than Lee.

            “Good, good,” Lee replied easily.

            “Do you mind?” Richard asked rather coldly, turning to where Lee was still leaning in close over the older man’s shoulder.

            “Sorry, Dickie,” Lee said, smirking as he pulled back, hot sauce concoction hidden in his sleeve. Richard rolled his eyes, but turned back to his stew as Lee walked away.

            “What was that about?” Orlando asked as Lee set down his tray at their table.

            “Nothing really, needed to talk to Martin about a scene he’s going to be hiding in.”

            “Ah, if I didn’t know you better, I might ask why you were leaning so close to our Thorin,” Orlando suggested, with more than a hint of suspicion in his voice.

            Lee just shook his head with a tiny smile as he turned to watch the table he’d just left.

            Richard dipped his spoon back into his stew and brought it to his mouth, Lee tensed in anticipation, his eyes fixed on his target. Richard coughed slightly as he chewed and swallowed the spoonful of stew, gave a confused look to his bowl, then shrugged and continued eating as if nothing had happened. Lee’s jaw dropped and he checked the hot sauce concoction he’d hidden in his sleeve, he’d dumped half the bottle into Richard’s stew!

            “Everything okay?” Evie asked, seeing Lee’s expression drop as she sat her own tray down at the table.

            “Apparently Richard doesn’t mind spicy food,” Lee grumbled, tucking the half empty bottle back into a pocket.

            “Not at all,” Orlando added, chuckling. “Ian said he ate that 5-pepper-hot curry from India House without even wincing.”

            “Damn,” Lee scowled into his bowl while Evie also joined in the laughter. After a few moments, Lee shook it off, onto Phase 2 then.


	5. Sneaker Slime

            “Fuck,” Richard muttered under his breath. He’d brought his only decent pair of running shoes to the gym yesterday and now they were ruined. _Damn Lee bloody Pace to the pits of hell_ , he thought to himself as he carefully picked up the sneakers with only his thumb and pointer finger. The shoes were dripping some sort of slime that began leaking out as soon as he’d started to slip his feet into them. Lee must have pulled out the bottom lining, filled them up, replaced the insoles, and stashed them back next to his locker while he’d been showering.

            He dumped them into the waste bin just as Aidan and Dean pulled into his complex’s driveway for their normal Saturday morning run.

            “Morning, Uncle,” Dean greeted, shooting Richard a grin as he moved to the passenger side of the car to coax Aidan out.

            “Yeah, short loop today lads,” Richard sighed, picking up the coffee he’d also brought with him downstairs to help Dean with Aidan.

            “Why aren’t you wearing shoes?” Aidan asked slowly as he reached greedily for the coffee and began guzzling it down.

            “I need to go back up and search out a new pair,” Richard replied, giving an accusatory look to his feet, as though it was their fault for inducing the slime.

            “Lee?” Dean questioned, leaning against the car to stretch.

            Richard hummed noncommittally then looked back at his building. “Should I bring anything else back down with me?”

            “Nah, I think we’re set to go,” Dean replied, watching Aidan as he began to brighten up considerably as he finished the coffee.

            “Alright, be back in a minute,” Richard said, already unlocking the door to the building.

 

            “Why, exactly, are you and Lee locked into this little showdown?” Dean asked, jogging a bit faster to keep in step with the much longer-legged Richard after he’d explained what happened with his shoes.

            “It’s gone too far now for him to just give up, Deano!” Aidan responded indignantly before Richard could get a word in.

            “I was asking Uncle, not you young’un,” Dean scowled playfully to Aidan, who was running at Richard’s other side.

            “The part of me that wants to do Thorin justice can’t let Thranduil win. At anything,” Richard responded before Aidan could respond to Dean’s cheekiness.

            “Well, duh,” Dean said, raising an eyebrow at Richard. “I meant, why did it even start?”

            Richard thought back to meeting Lee at the Firecracker, had it really only been a month ago? “I’m not entirely sure, you’d probably have to ask Pace.”

            “And the other part of you?” Aidan wondered aloud.

            “Lee is a pretty entertaining guy. Annoying as it is, I’m intrigued to see what he comes up with next.”

            “I think that’s a sign that you’re starting to like him,” Dean snorted.

            “I don’t not like him,” Richard replied, ignoring both Aidan and Dean raising their eyebrows to this statement. “It would just be nice if he could direct his creative energies elsewhere.”

            “Do you need any help with the pranking?” Aidan asked eagerly.

            “No, you two definitely need to stay out of this or Peter will make my life miserable,” Richard replied sternly, carefully looking Aidan in the eyes. The two younger actors shuddered, remembering their own Peter-induced punishment from that time they’d played with props and set before Weta had finished with them.

            “What’s your return move then?” Dean ventured.

            “Don’t know yet,” Richard said shrugging as the three turned up a side street. “I’ll come up with something on the ride to location next week.”

            “Better be something good,” Aidan said. “Running in sub-par shoes is the worst.”


	6. Invade Privacy Part 2

                 If anyone had told Lee that he would one day find himself hiding in a closet, waiting for a man he was NOT dating or having sex with to fall asleep, with his arms full of superglue and Hello Kitty band-aids, he would have had them admitted to the nearest asylum. And yet, here he was, tucked away in Richard’s particular favorite nap room, long after the elves had been allowed to leave for the night.

            Every cast and crew member had their favorite place to nap. For some, like Stephen Hunter, it was anywhere, any time. For others, it was in the back prop room, filled with several mattresses, close enough to hear if you were being called to set, but far enough away from the excitement to let you catch a few hours of shut-eye. It actually took a couple days (and some covert, investigative questions to a certain hobbit) for Lee to figure out where Richard preferred to disappear to. There was a small back room, hidden just beyond the costume department and the gross bathrooms that nobody used because they looked like they hadn’t been cleaned since the Wellington Studio was built. The room, Martin referred to it as the lost stock office, had a couple desks piled high with outdated filing drawers and cabinets, though it actually had a cot shoved to one side, piled with blankets from over the years that actors had taken refuge here. And it was a mini-refuge: the surroundings were silent, a small electric kettle was plugged into the wall with a stack of Styrofoam cups and a box of tea bags next to it, the lighting was dim, and there was a small closet full of cleaning supplies off to one side, ensuring that the tiny room was surprisingly clean despite its initial abandoned feel.

            As soon as Lee heard muffled snores coming from the other side of the closet door, he quietly slipped out into the main room, putting his supplies on the floor next to the cot in order to get to work. With the rain falling gently outside, making a soft pattering noise against the walls, and Richard uttered another gentle snore, Lee almost felt bad about what he was doing. Only almost though. He would have thought that itching powder joke was stepping over a line, but oh, Armitage had done it. The older man had weaseled his way into the room where the costumes were kept and found not one, but _three_ , of Lee’s garments, lining them with itching powder. That little doozy made Lee feel justified in anything he was about to do here this afternoon.

            Thankfully, Richard had fallen asleep without pulling any of the blankets over him. And he’d pulled the fat suit off, so that was one thing less that Lee would have to try to manipulate him out of. The warm air in the lost stock office also ensured that Richard’s zip-up jacket had been discarded, thrown over the foot of the cot. Slowly, Lee crept closer to the cot, when Richard remained asleep, he tentatively reached out a hand to touch the older man’s shoulder. Still, Richard slept on. Lee smiled, the man must have been truly exhausted after the past few days of location shooting.

            Careful to be as quiet as possible, Lee got to work on opening the Hello Kitty band-aids and placing just a dot of superglue on the center of each one. Once finished with this, he looked over Richard’s body. It wasn’t quite fair that every inch of the man’s body was so gorgeously cut, broad shoulders taut with muscle, huge forearms from wielding Orchrist, slender neck, legs with long and lean muscles, and not to mention the sexuality exuded from his peaceful, bearded face. Lee had to mentally slap himself out of his daze; he knew his own body was smattered with far too many freckles, he was lanky without the muscle tone that Richard had achieved despite the grueling hours he’d put in at the gym for years, and, let’s face it, the only reason he kept his eyebrows was so that fans, or potential employers, would even have a chance at recognizing him.

            Lee frowned at himself for being distracted by thoughts like these when the time was ripe for some payback. The arms would be easiest, a couple bandaids here and there on his biceps and forearms. As Richard continued to sleep, Lee pulled the blanket off his legs, once again thankful that Thorin preferred loose tracksuits to wear on set when not filming. Lee pushed one pant leg up and pressed two Hello Kitty bandaids onto Richard’s calf before the older man started to twitch, shifting his position around as though waking. Lee quickly replaced the blanket on top of Richard, then grabbed his pranking material and practically scurried out of the room.

            Well, that may have been ever so slightly too invasive, but as Lee recalled the still-healing rash on his own inner thighs from that damn itching powder, the line had already been crossed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got a couple chapters written up to de-stress as finals are fast approaching! I'm thinking the tone of the story will start to change next chapter.... I hope you enjoy!


	7. Cricket-Induced Drama

            “What the hell did you do, Armitage?” Orlando slammed his plate down next to Martin, glaring at the dark-haired Brit across from him.

            “What do you mean?” Richard responded, absently rubbing at one of the irritated, now hairless, patches on his arm.

            “He’s been with us all morning,” Graham said, somehow maintaining both disappointment and amusement in his expression as he looked between Richard and Orlando.

            “Well Lee is in his trailer and the door is locked! He's never locked his door! Even after the whole mud fiasco!” Orlando replied, sitting heavily at their table. Aidan and Dean snickered at the mention of the mud. Richard, however, looked thoughtful and shifted in his seat.

            “What did you do?” Martin sighed, recognizing the hint of guilt on Richard’s face.

            “Well, nothing really,” Richard started, then hesitated at Orlando’s narrowed eyes. “Alright, maybe something with crickets after we finished filming last night.”

            Aidan and Dean immediately burst into laughter, Adam looked mildly disgusted, Graham and Martin rolled their eyes, but Orlando gave Richard an absolutely seething glare.

            “I’ll go apologize,” Richard said quickly at Orlando’s look; it really must have done something awful to Lee for others to be so upset about it. Richard got up from the table, taking his trash with him, and left the cafeteria.

 

            “Lee?” Richard knocked softly on the younger actor’s door. No response. Richard tried the latch, but it was locked just as Orlando had said, so Richard made his voice a bit louder. “Hey, Lee?”

            Still nothing.

            Richard sighed, pacing back and forth in front of the trailer as he tried to decide what to do. He really hadn’t meant anything by this most recent prank; he’d gotten a bunch of crickets from the pet store down the road that sold them for frog and lizard food. And yes, he _may_ have set the box of them loose in Lee’s trailer, but as long as Lee left the door open for an hour or two at night, they’d all be gone. Not nearly as bad as his earlier itching powder idea or the band-aids Lee had stuck on him…

            Towards the back of Lee’s trailer, a soft sobbing noise caused Richard to stop his pacing. He frowned and leaned in closer to the trailer. That was definitely the sound of someone, most likely Lee, crying.

            Richard quickly went through his pockets to see if he had a paperclip handy and grinned to himself when he found one. He unbent it, walking back up to the trailer door, and set about to picking the lock. After a minute or so of scratching around in the keyhole, he heard a light click. Lock-picking successful, he put the paperclip back into his pocket and took a couple breaths to prepare himself for whatever awaited him in Lee’s trailer.

            The trailer shifted gently under his weight as Richard pushed the door open. A quick glance around showed that the cricket infestation was extremely minor, a couple bug traps were on the floor and a pile of dead crickets were in the dust pan by the door.

            “Fuck you!” came Lee’s shout from the back of the trailer where Richard had heard the sobbing. Richard started, eyes wide, as he looked over to the bed, where Lee must have been laying down because Richard couldn’t quite see him over the back of the couch. “Fuck you, Carter. Just take whatever the fuck you want and get out of _my_ apartment.”

            Richard pressed his lips together, Lee’s mood apparently had nothing to do with him, he really shouldn’t have come in. As he shifted his weight to back out of the door though, Lee appeared, standing up from where he’d been on the bed. Lee’s eyes were red, rimmed with unshed tears, and widened in shock as he noticed Richard in his trailer. Richard felt caught like a deer in the headlights. Why had Orlando thought that this was his fault?

            “Sorry,” Richard mouthed trying to back out of the door again. Lee frowned though and held up his hand to stop.

            “We’ll continue this later. I’m busy,” Lee said into the phone, using short, clipped sentences. Then he ended the call and looked at Richard with a single eyebrow raised. The effect was somewhat ruined by the clear evidence that Lee had been crying, but Richard got the point. “How did you get in?”

            “Ah, picked the lock,” Richard offered, preparing himself for some verbal abuse.

            “You pick locks?” Lee looked more surprised than offended by Richard’s answer, which encouraged Richard to continue.

            “Yeah, I wasn’t allowed a key as a kid and my brother was often busy after school, so I had to learn if I wanted to go home.”

            “Why weren’t you allowed to have a key?” Lee ran a hand across his face, wiping his eyes, unsure if he was really intrigued or just trying to distract Richard from the fact that he had been crying.

            “I, uh, was bullied a bit,” Richard hesitated, but Lee was in a pretty vulnerable position himself, so he decided to keep going. “We didn’t have a lot of money. One time some kids stole everything that was in my pockets and followed me back to my house, a couple days later there was a bunch of stuff going missing, so I had to tell my parents what happened. They changed the locks and my father wouldn’t give me a key until I could defend myself properly.”

            “Well… that’s really… pretty sad,” Lee replied, sighing with exhaustion and shaking his head as he walked around the couch to take a couple bottles of water out of his fridge. He held one out to Richard. “Want one?”

            “I’m set, thanks,” Richard said with a slight shake of the head and only a little exasperated chuckle. This was a bit surreal to him, talking about his childhood with a man who he’d been pranking for a couple months now. “Are you alright?”

            “Yeah, fine,” Lee sighed and sat heavily on his couch, taking a few gulps from his water. “Why’d you come over here?”

            “Orlando thought my last prank had upset you and he was worried,” Richard replied, carefully leaning against Lee’s counter by the door.

            “Really?” Lee asked, a bit shocked. Richard just nodded. “Oh, no, that was nothing.”

            “That’s what I said!” Richard said, a bit indignantly. Lee just gave a slight nod of response and drank some more water.

            As the silence stretched on for a few minutes, Richard shifted and looked towards the door. He was internally debating whether or not to get involved with Lee’s personal life. Clearly, the phone conversation he’d overheard was the cause of Lee’s mood. But, if Evie and Orlando (who were closest to Lee on set) didn’t know anything about it, then surely he (as more of an opponent than a friend) had no right to be prying. On the other hand though, Lee just looked so despondent that it _was_ worrying. Richard was used to seeing Lee with a big, albeit goofy, grin on his face or mischievous light dancing in his eyes. The longer the silence continued, the brighter Lee’s eyes seemed to get with unshed tears, and Richard’s mind was made up.

            “What happened?”

            “Hmm?” Lee looked up from the desolate stare he’d been giving to his half empty water bottle.

            “If you want to talk about it,” Richard offered hesitantly, gesturing vaguely to the phone in Lee’s hand while looking away from Lee to pick at a fraying edge of the countertop. This time a slightly more tense quiet filled the trailer.

            “My ex broke into our old apartment because he apparently forgot to take absolutely everything,” Lee said eventually, leaning back further into his couch. “We’d been drifting apart for ages, but when I got the offer to come here, he basically said ‘it’s me or New Zealand.’ I chose New Zealand and we got into a bit of a mess when he moved out.”

            “I’m sorry to hear that,” Richard replied, focusing his attention back on Lee. “My ex and I split on good terms, but I was still a wreck for months after she left and we went our separate ways. I can’t imagine how it is to be on different continents and still so angry with each other.”

            “I thought we’d gotten the worst of it out of the way,” Lee sighed again, then gave a short, self-deprecating laugh. “Guess not.”

            Although Richard felt a bit edgy, as usual for him being vulnerable with someone for the first time, he could practically see Lee’s eyes begging for a hug. And, if he was being honest with himself, he would do anything to get that self-hatred out of Lee’s current attitude in favor of the younger man’s usual happy-go-lucky moods. So, Richard moved over to the couch and carefully sat down next to Lee.

            Lee glanced up at the creaking of the couch as Richard sat down. Their gazes met for a brief moment and Richard lifted one of his arms over the back of the couch. Lee took this for an invitation, scooting closer to rest his head on Richard’s shoulder. Richard shifted his upper body so he could wrap his arms more fully around Lee.

            It was awkward at first, as most hugs are with people who you’ve been antagonizing for weeks, but a few minutes in Lee was melting. He hadn’t wanted pity here, he didn’t want to be burdening anyone else with his silly relationship problems when they all had children to worry about. With strong, warm arms wrapped tightly around him though, Lee realized just how much he’d needed a hug. It was nice to lean on someone sometimes, even if just for a few short moments.

            Their hug was interrupted by a loud banging on the door, accompanied by Orlando shouting Lee’s name. The two men quickly dis-entangled themselves as both Orlando and Evie barged into the trailer.

            “You alright Lee?” Evie asked, peeking around Orlando into the trailer.

            “Sure, Dickie and I made a truce,” Lee said, standing and collecting his now empty water.

            “Not if you keep calling me that,” Richard groused, rolling his eyes with less vigor now than he might have had a few weeks ago.

            “Good, we have to be on set in 5,” Orlando said, catching the empty bottle that Lee tossed at him.

            “Of course, I’ll meet you over there,” Lee replied, ushering the other two elves out of his trailer. “Just have to pee.”

            “Hurry up!” Evie shouted cheerfully as Orlando started dragging her off the main stage.

            Richard stood from the couch, stretching from the odd way his back had been twisted as they’d hugged.

            “Thanks,” Lee said as Richard also made his way out of the trailer.

            “Let me know if I can help,” Richard responded, offering Lee a small, gentle smile.

            “Yeah,” Lee gave a hesitant shadow of his normal goofy grin in return before closing the door to his trailer.

            Richard wandered back to the main building in a bit of a daze; he wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened between himself and Lee, but he had a definite feeling that maybe things weren’t quite as hostile between him and the American as everyone else on set seemed to believe. _Interesting_ , he thought, the corners of his lips turning up into a smile.


End file.
